


Who Are You?

by CostumersDelight (CostumerDelight)



Category: Life of the Party D&D (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Canon compliant thru episode 33, M/M, Memory Loss, Multiple Authors, Return from Death, What if Renard didn't remember his friends?, eventually smut, hence the rating, how do you bring back memories?, multi author work, spoilers thru episode 33, written before we knew he didn't remember his wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:14:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23667472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CostumerDelight/pseuds/CostumersDelight
Summary: After falling to the assassin at the ball and returning in a blaze of copper-winged glory, Vanden forgets nearly everything except for himself and tiny blips of memory. The party then begin the task of trying to get him to remember them, with varying degrees of success and failure.
Relationships: Cassian/Renard (Life of the Party)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Who Are You?

**Author's Note:**

> AAHHHH so this has been written by a handful of folx over the course of two weeks, and I've been elected to be the host for publishing the story we've crafted. We've all had a ton of fun going over the information of the series to try and get the best options for memory recall for each character, recent and old, and this labo(u)r of love comes to you from:
> 
> Shadow (@shadowringa on twitter)  
> KCH (on discord)  
> Megg (me!)
> 
> Thank you to the LotPDND Discord Server for the suggestions and guidance from the cast on things we ourselves forgot from time to time!

Everything was a blur at first. Fragments of memories flickering in Vanden’s mind as he tried to piece together what was going on. He...died? Yes… He was stabbed. But what about before then? Try as he might he just couldn’t remember. Someone had gently taken his hand and pulled him along with them. They were running. From what or who? Who’s to say. But this presence, these people had felt safe. He felt he could trust them.

They finally stopped upon reaching a home with a sun painted on the door. Vanden followed them all in, unable to listen to any of their words, mind still racing in an attempt to figure out what was going on. He was completely lost inside his own mind, until someone called out his name.

“Vanden. Are you okay?” It was the green tiefling.

He looked over the strange group then over to the one that had used his name, “I’m sorry, who are you?” 

“Now is not the time for jokes, Vanden,” an elven man snapped. 

“How do you know my name?” The room went silent. 

The woman with long blue hair then spoke out, “Didn’t Vanden say he had trouble remembering things in the past? Do you think that could have happened again? Because-- because of what happened tonight?” 

“You mean when he burst out his wings?” replied a half-elven man who appeared to be shoeless. 

The blue haired woman continued, “Exactly, it’s like he’s been-” 

“Reborn.” A soft-spoken elven woman stood in front of Vanden with a sorrowful look on her face, “The Vanden we knew… He’s gone.” 

“No! That can’t be right, he’s our Vanden. He just needs help remembering, that’s all!” responded the green tiefling, a hint of desperation in his tone. Vanden watched the tiefling as he dug into his bag and pulled out a bottle with a strange liquid in it, saying, “Remember when we stole these bath oils in Mirrortail?”

Vanden looked at the bottle curiously. It was vaguely familiar, but what house didn’t have bath oils? “Who stole these? You do know stealing is wrong, correct?”

“Okay maybe that wasn’t the best thing to bring up. But we saved the drake from captivity, so...” The tiefling then went back to their bag and pulled out what looked to be a ship in a bottle. “Okay how about this then?” As Vanden looked at the bottle he could hear the sound of waves in his head. “You have to remember the Lyra Bird, you named it after all! We had so many adventures on this boat… Finding those runes, Lakeside, the dragon-”

_ Dragon...!? _ A quick flash of memories swirled through Vanden’s head. A powerful, hungry roar echoed loudly within his mind. He saw the form of the green tiefling before him curled up in a dark corner, covered in blood, as he slowly rocked himself, trying to calm down.

“Stop it! You’re not helping him,” the elven man hissed as he took the bottle from the tiefling, “and you’re just making yourself upset!” 

“Wait, I’ve got it! He has to remember this! He has to!” the green tiefling said as he ran upstairs.

The green tiefling returned after a few moments, holding a beautiful lute. Vanden could feel as his memories started to flash, faint sparks and glimmers that danced just out of reach as he stared at it.

“You remember this? You gave this to me while we were in Lakeside. It was the first present I’ve ever received from you... More importantly this was the first thing ever given to me.” He slowly started to play a song, strumming something upbeat but somehow longing, and it was as if something in Vanden’s mind clicked. A flood of memories entered Vandens head, so overwhelming that he fell to his knees. 

Astra stopped playing and went over to Vanden “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Are you okay!?”  _ Wait... Astra?  _

“Astra…”   


The green tiefling tried to hold back his tears “Y-yes Vanden?” Vanden looked up at Astra, the memories of his bardic friend returning. He placed his hand on Astra’s cheek, wiping away a tear making its way down Astra’s face, unable to be held in any longer.

“Thank you.” 

He held Vandens hand to his cheek, “Don’t you ever go scaring us like that again! We thought we really lost you out there!” Vanden pulled Astra into his arms, holding him gently, letting Astra cry into his shoulder.

“You should rest, Vanden,” the petite blonde stated from his right, “you almost died.” Reminded of the gaping wounds cutting all the way through Vanden, Astra quickly lets go of him.

“Shouldn’t we--” the dark-skinned elf started to speak but was interrupted by a small hand on his arm. 

“We need to rest, *******,” the blued haired women stated, the final word fizzling out into...some sort of sound Vanden couldn’t quite place. “We were all injured. We’re lucky Vanden didn’t die. He needs rest.” The taller elf nodded, reluctantly, prompting the even taller half-elf to nod as well.

“I think we all do,” he stated, curly dark hair bouncing slightly with the motion.

“We’ll all talk in the morning, over some of ******’s breakfast,” Astra said softly. “Come on, Vanden, I’ll show you to your room.” Vanden heard the same strange sound, but there was too much talking going on around him to place it still.

And Vanden had a room? Well, that made sense. These accommodations looked like barracks. Weird, that he knew what barracks were but not that he lived here. Had a room here. And the room was, undoubtedly, his. Vanden didn’t recognize a single item in the place, but his feet automatically brought him to the bed, as if he’d traced those very steps a number of times before. 

“Let me help you out of your shirt. It’s ruined,” Astra offered. It was polite of him not to mention that it was ruined by Vandens own blood, torn open in several places. Torn open by… blades? And his wings. Oh, Vanden had wings for a minute there. Where had they gone? He wasn’t sure.

“Honestly, Astra,” the man said from where he was already horizontal on his bed, “I’d rather not move right now. You’re injured as well. Get some sleep.”

Astra looked down at himself, his fancy clothes were covered in blood and some of it wasn’t even his own. He nodded in agreement and started walking out of Vanden’s room. “Call if you need anything okay?”

“Good night, Astra.”

Astra nodded and quietly left the room.

Vanden tried to relax in his bed but something in his mind kept bugging him. The elven man… Just something about him ticked him off. Was it the way he looked? The way he acted? The tone of his voice? No something else… It was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn’t remember. His thought process was interrupted by a knock at his door. He slowly got out of bed, hissing in pain, and went to see who was calling on him just after being sent to bed. Vanden's eyes went wide as he saw the elven man he’d just been thinking about in the doorway.

The elven man crossed his arms, “Why didn’t you change? Do you really want to sleep in your own blood, let alone someone else’s?”

Vanden couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  _ Who the fuck does this man think he is!? _ “Have you forgotten what we all went through tonight?”

“No, but obviously you have,” he replied with a slight smirk on his face

Vanden tried his best to refrain from slamming the door in the elven man’s face. “... What do you want.”

“Nothing, I wanted to check on you.”

“And criticize me on not changing my clothes?” Vanden added.

There was a short moment where the elven man just looked Vanden up and down before speaking, “You have to admit it’s disgusting.”

“Goodnight-” 

As Vanden went to close the door, the elven man stopped him by putting his foot in the doorway and asked, “Goodnight, what?”

Vanden’s head spun a bit as he tried to remember. His face looked familiar but… Nothing. No memories, not even a name could pop into Vanden’s mind right now. Maybe it was the pain keeping him from focusing.

“Goodnight what, Vanden?” the man repeated, “or should I say Renard at this point?”

There was a sudden loud noise coming from Vanden’s left, familiar only from the couple incidents earlier. It sounded like waves crashing upon rocks at the shore.

Both of them turned to see the platinum-blonde elf walking down the hallway to them. The elven man met her half way and the pair started to whisper to each other. It sounded like a small fight, but Vanden couldn’t pick up what they were saying. Soon after, the elven man gave a huff and walked around the corner.

The elven woman went over to Vanden, “Just ignore him. Today was hard on all of us and he’s just trying to get to you.”

Vanden gave a sigh of relief, “Thank you. He’s a strange one…”

“He can be,” the elven woman agreed, “but after you get to know him he’s quite normal. At least to me he is.”

“Well we’ll see... Is there anything else?” There was a strained moment after the question as the woman shifted on her feet, wringing her hands slightly. Then a nod.

“I should give this back to you,” she said, sliding a ring off her thumb. Once it was off, a magic veil faded from her skin, revealing dozens upon dozens of scars on her body. Vanden tried to hold in the pain he felt in his head as his memories flooded back in him again. “Tonight, even though we ended up fighting for our lives, was one of the best nights I’ve ever had. I hated it, hated all of those horrible people, but being at one of those events and knowing that you were there with me. That you all were...” she admitted as tears started to form in her eyes, “I would have never been able to go out there if it wasn’t for you. So… thank you…”

Vanden could feel his heart ache at her words as he tried to smile. He wanted to remember; so desperately he wanted to remember. He took the ring from her and placed it back on his index finger, seeing a glimmer of light reflected on the ring. He turned to see the moon perfectly framed in the window across the hall from his room.

The blonde elf noticed this and smiled a bit as she wiped her tears off her cheeks “She’s very beautiful tonight. I’m glad she was able to watch over you when you needed her.”

Vanden looked back at the elf, “... She wasn’t the only one who looked beautiful tonight, Sariel. You were the belle of the ball tonight.” Another click in his mind as he spoke, and he smiled to himself.

Sariel quickly looked at Vanden surprised and smiled brightly. “V-Vanden?”

“I’m so sorry it took me so long to remember you,” he said, offering her a hug. Sariel quickly took Vanden into her arms and cried against his chest. Vanden winced slightly in pain at the pressure of her head against him, but hesitantly wrapped an arm around her in return, petting gently at her hair in an attempt to comfort them both. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you Vanden. Everything just happened so-”

“Never blame yourself for what happened tonight,” Vanden interrupted as he gently made Sariel look him in the eye, “no one would have been able to predict what happened tonight. Not even you… It’s okay.”

  
Sariel gave Vanden one final squeeze before letting him go. “Never again… I will never let you fall like that ever again.” She then left and went straight for her room. Vanden watched as Sariel went to her room, then went back to bed. He tried his best to sleep but with the pain of his wounds and the maelstrom of thoughts in his head, it proved to be more difficult than expected.


End file.
